Talk:Utility monster
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I have a problem with using this utility monster to criticize utility theory:
"If the utility monster can get so much pleasure from each unit of resources, It follows from utilitarianism, that the distribution of resources should acknowledge this. If the utility monster existed, it would justify the mistreatment and perhaps annihilation of everyone else, according to the doctrine utilitarianism."
No; the law of diminishing returns would guarantee the monster's efficiency would go down, and conversely everyone else's efficiency would go up as resources are consumed. Turidoth 20:23, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
if everyone else's pleasure gained goes up whilst resources go down, wouldn't the monster also appreciate the diminishing resources as well? This is a horrible misapplication of the law of diminishing returns, you realise it isn't something which can be applied wherever?
In response to the comment posted using ip 58.165.246.52, I think you are misunderstanding either my application of the Law, or the Law itself. As the monster gathers more and more resources, each addition unit of resource will result in less satisfaction for it. For example, the first french fry you eat will give more utility to you than the next fry, and the third fry will have even less utility than the second, and so on. At the same time, your friends will be willing to pay more for this dwindling (assuming limited) resource. In short, no, you will not appreciate paying more for each fry, while receiving less utility. Please, think before criticizing others. Turidoth 14:31, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
I deleted the following:
However, for the monster to be able to measure utility on the same scale as us it must intuitively be similar to us. In which case, it would seem to be virtually impossible for monster to use all the available resources better than the human population would. So, while they may take a large amount of resources they still would not lead to a particularly terrible result. Unless there were many such monsters, in which case it would seem to be more a case of natural selection. Not a particularly distressing outcome, and not one that would cause the denial of utilitarianism.
The above is nonsense because the concept of the utility monster has nothing to do with using resources "better." What is better? By Robert Nozick's definition, the Utility Monster gets more utility from resources, and we are only considering utility, so it is impossible to for the human population to use the resources "better." Furthermore, natural selection is a distressing outcome. Something being natural does not mean that it is good or better. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Estlacertosus (talk • contribs) 09:40, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Worthy of an article?
This has no citations, no indications of notability... It could be merged with either Nozick or one of the utilitarianism articles. I would probably favour expanding the section in Nozick's article and having it redirect to there (as with e.g. non-overlapping magisteria). Richard001 (talk) 11:41, 13 May 2008 (UTC)
fair. no objections:)Spencerk (talk) 06:07, 14 May 2008 (UTC)
